Week 0, Thursday (9/28/2018) - Introductions, Class Overview, Ableton Live Overview

Class Introductions

Class Overview (see syllabus)

Listening Activity

• - Frank Ocean - Nights (2nd half)
• - Sango's remix of Frank Ocean - Nights
• - Any parts of either song that you particularly liked?
• - What was preserved from the original in the remix? What was changed?

Ableton Live Overview

• - How to get Ableton Live: see course syllabus here
• - Info View (bottom left): Hover your mouse over items in Ableton Live, and the Info View will give you information on that item. You can also write your own notes for specific items (right click on the item and select Edit Info Text)
• - The Browser (left sidebar): Holds your instruments, audio effects, audio samples, Ableton Packs, etc.
• - Toggle between session and arrangement view with tab button
• - General way of interacting with Ableton
• - Bring in audio samples, software instruments, audio effects, etc from the Browser sidebar into a track in the workspace in the center.
• - Audio clips and MIDI clips within Audio tracks or MIDI tracks are your musical building blocks
• - Audition your work with the play/stop buttons the top
• - Adjust BPM/tempo at the top if necessary
• - Audio vs. MIDI
• - Audio is a recording of a continuous signal. The recording can be made from your laptop, a microphone, or some sample that you get online. Audio clips look like squiggly lines in Ableton.
• - MIDI is a symbolic set of controls that tells a software instrument what note to play and how to play it. For example, a MIDI clip can say: Play note C4 with velocity 100. In order to hear MIDI, you need to attach a software instrument. MIDI clips look like a collection of blocks in Ableton.
• - Additional resources:
• - Ableton Live 10 Manual
• - Live Concepts
• - Ableton First Steps
• - Ableton Live Lessons: step-by-step tutorials on how to record audio, making beats, etc
• - Within Ableton, click on Help > Help View
• - In the sidebar that pops up on the right, click on any of the dark rectangles under the bold "Get Started" section

Week 1, Tuesday (10/02/2018) - Making sound in Ableton Live and staying organized in Ableton Live

Making Sound in Ableton (drawing, recording, and editing MIDI)

• - MIDI: control information that tells a software instrument what note to play with what velocity (how hard to hit the note), etc
• - Drawing and editing MIDI Clips
• - Double-click on a section in Arrangement or Session View to create new MIDI clips
• - Click on a MIDI clip to select it and bring up the Clip View with the keyboard
• - Keyboard section of the MIDI Clip View
• - click the headphone icon to hear the notes that you play
• - add notes: double click on a grid box
• - delete notes: click on a note and tap the delete key on your keyboard
• - lengthen/shorten notes: hover your mouse over the edges of the note until the bracket shows up, then click and drag to your desired length
• - modify the velocity of notes with the red bars in the bottom section of the clip view
• - moving notes: click on a note and use your arrow keys
• - shifting notes up an octave: click on a note and hold down shift and use your up/down arrow keys
• - select multiple notes: click and drag over all the notes you want to select or hold down shift and click on the notes you want
• - zooming in and out: click and drag up/down on the timeline of the clip view
• - Options
• - change grid size: Options > Narrow Grid and Options > Widen Grid (Command-1 and Command-2)
• - triplet grid: Options > Triplet Grid (Command 3)
• - snapping to the grid: Options > Snap to Grid (Command 4) [note: you can override this by holding down the command key when moving notes]
• - draw mode: Options > Draw mode (or "B" or the pen icon on the top right corner of Ableton)
• - Left side of MIDI Clip View (under the heading "Notes")
• - MIDI clip looping: Loop button in the Notes section and loop brace within the keyboard section
• - divide the time in half :2 or multiply the time by 2 *2 for selected notes
• - reverse or invert the selected notes
• - legato: stretch the notes until it reaches the start of the next note
• - Dupl.Loop: duplicate the MIDI line that you've drawn

Recording MIDI Clips

• - Record using your laptop keyboard
• - set the count-in and metronome to whatever you want in the top left corner
• - set the record arm button on for the track you want to record into
• - set monitor to In or Auto for the track
• - make sure the Computer MIDI Keyboard button at the top right corner is activated (shortcut "m")
• - make sure there is a software instrument in your MIDI track
• - click the Arrangement Record button in the top center and play stuff on your laptop keyboard
• - stop recording by pressing the Stop button at the top center or pressing the spacebar on your laptop keyboard
• - Laptop keyboard notes
• - refer to this diagram but ignore numberss 1 through 8 and the tab button
• - see this tutorial for more information
• - Quantization: snap notes to the grid
• - quantize after recording: right click in the keyboard area of the MIDI clip view and use Quantize Settings or Quantize
• - quantize during recording: Edit > Record Quantization and choose the note quantization that you want
• - Overdub recording: layer MIDI recordings over multiple takes
• - Options > MIDI Arrangement Overdub or clicking the "+" button in the top center area to the right of the play/stop/record buttons
• - Turning on looping can help with this
• - record using a MIDI controller
• - attach your MIDI controller to your computer
• - open up Preferences > Link / MIDI tab > select your control surface
• - we will talk more about this in the performance lecture, but if you are interested, see https://www.ableton.com/en/manual/midi-and-key-remote-control/
• - record as you would with the laptop keyboard, but play notes on your MIDI controller instead
• - Recording in Session View
• - similar to Arrangement View, but you can click those little circle buttons within the track to start recording clips within specific tracks for both MIDI and audio
• - you can record in multiple tracks at the same time by enabling the Record Arm button for multiple tracks (hold Command) and the use the Session Record Button at the top center (unfilled circle)
• - helpful resource for recording clips in Ableton

Staying organized in Ableton Live

• - Choose a folder on your computer for your samples. Add this folder to the File Browser
• - Choose a folder for your Ableton Projects and save them there
• - When you save your Ableton Projects, a folder will be created and your Live Set (.als file) will be saved within that Project folder. Save different versions of the same Project within the Project folder.
• - If you need to transfer projects to another computer, you will probably want to use Collect all and Save or consider using Splice, which is free and also great for collaborating with other musicians.

In-class Activity: create a 4 or 8 bar loop with MIDI

• 1) Drag an instrument onto a MIDI track. On that track, create a MIDI clip and draw in some MIDI notes.
• - play around with adding, deleting, moving, lengthening/shortening notes
• - try to zoom in/out (click and hold, then drag up and down)
• - try changing the grid size with command-1 and command-2 shortcuts
• - modify the velocity of some of the notes
• 2) Drag an instrument onto another MIDI track. Record a MIDI clip into this track using the laptop keyboard.
• - Remember to turn on the laptop keyboard, you can click the piano keyboard at the top right or press “m” on your keyboard.
• - quantize the recorded MIDI if you want
• 3) Change the BPM to something other than 120BPM
• 4) Make a 4 or 8 bar loop out of the above material adding additional MIDI or audio samples if you would like.
• 5) Make sure you know how to save your project

Week 1, Thursday (10/04/2018) - Ableton Instruments (Part 1)

Announcements

• - Ableton University Tour will be at CPMC on Thursday, October 25
• - 1pm: CPMC 204 for UCSD students only
• - 6pm: CPMC Recital Hall (open to the public) rsvp: here
• - ICAM studios will be ready for use at the end of the day today and room 204 will be ready next week. For information on the studios and lab, see this page

Ableton Instruments - useful links

• - Free synths here and here
• - How to add in 3rd party VSTs or AUs into Ableton for Mac and Windows
• - Ableton Live Instrument Reference

Simpler

• - a sampler with classical synthesizer parameters
• - 3 different playback modes: Classic for looped sounds, One-shot for sounds you don't need to loop, and Slice for beat-based samples
• - ADSR envelopes
• - making a drone with Simpler by looping over a small part of a sample
• - filter, LFO, pitch, and warp sections
• - Sampler is similar to Simpler but doesn't have that Slice mode and gives you more control over the samples and allows for multiple samples

Operator

• - synthesizer that allows for additive, subtractive, and FM synthesis with 4 oscillators and multiple algorithms/mappings between the oscillators
• - what is the difference between additive and FM synthesis?
• - building a bass sound using Operator

In-class Activity: sound design with instruments we learned about today and build a small loop or song

• - Assign each person in your group to work on a voice of a song. For example:
• student 1: drums/beat
• student 2: bass
• student 3: lead synth
• - Each student should then:
• 1) Find a sound that you like for one of the instruments that we talked about in class today. Ideas for playing around with the instruments
• - start from the an Ableton preset and modify the sound to your liking
• - use Simpler to make a drone sound
• - use Simpler to make a synth sound using a vocals sample or piano sample (or something else weird)
• - use the Simpler Slice playback mode to cut up a drum break
• - use Operator create your own bass sound
• - play around in Operator with additive or FM synthesis and modify the amplitude envelopes to your liking
• 2) compose a short section or loop using the sound that you modified
• - Put together the parts to form a loop or a song.
• - Save your project because we will continue adding to it next week with more instruments and MIDI effects.

Week 2, Tuesday (10/09/2018) - Ableton Instruments (Part 2)

Drum Rack

• - click here to read more about Drum Racks
• - an organizational device that is specialized for drums/percussion
• - each pad holds an Instrument and if you drop a sample onto a pad, it is encapsulated by a Simpler instrument
• - each pad is mapped to a MIDI note so you can play the drums with a MIDI controller
• - audio effects can affect the entire drum rack or just a single pad/instrument depending on where they are placed
• - the chain list choke groups are good for high hats
• - the chain list sends and returns are good for adding audio effects to a group of Instruments/samples

Other Instruments in Ableton:

• - Abelton's Instrument manual
• - Impulse: 8-pad drum sampler with some modulation capabilities
• - Wavetable: a synthesizer with 2 wavetable-based oscillators, 2 filters, and an easy-to-understand modulation interface (lets you make really crunchy crazy sounds)
• - Analog: a virtual analog synthesizer that combines the features of vintage synthesizers into one instrument
• - Electric: physical model of an electric piano
• - Tension: physical model of a string instrument
• - Collision: physical model of a mallet percussion instrument

MIDI Effects

• - Ableton Live MIDI Effect Reference
• - this is a great tutorial on how to use Ableton Live MIDI effects to generate musical ideas
• - Random: randomize the incoming pitch
• - Chord: create a chord with the incoming note
• - Scale: force the incoming notes into a scale
• - Arpeggiator: play incoming chords in series as arpeggios
• - Velocity: modify the incoming velocity in a controlled or randomized way
• - Pitch: transpose your MIDI notes
• - Note Length: lengthen or shorten your notes (only apparent for notes which need to be held down for sustain)

Project 1 has been posted to this website and TritonEd

In-class Activity: add to your project from last week

• 1) Choose at least 2 MIDI effects to explore and add to your in-class work from last week. Explore some of the presets and change some of the parameters until you like the resulting sound.
• 2) Feel free to add in a Drum Rack or some other instrument into the song.
• 3) Play your creation for the class!

Week 2, Thursday (10/11/2018) - Editing Audio Files

Samples

• - Samples are recordings of audio that you can use in your music
• - Where to look for free samples:
• - Music Radar
• - https://freesound.org/
• - record them yourself!
• - check Reddit
• - share with friends

Recording Audio into Ableton

• - set the count-in and metronome to whatever you want in the top left corner
• - set the audio input device in preferences
• - set the record arm button on for the track you want to record into
• - set monitor to In or Auto for the track
• - choose the Input Type for the track and set the channel
• - click the Arrangement Record button in the top center and talk at your laptop / sing into your microphone
• - ways to record:
• - from your laptop microphone
• - from a microphone going through an audio interace
• - from within your computer using Soundflower, JackAudio, Loopback or some other one that works). Here's an example using Soundflower.

Warping Audio

• - Time-stretching and compressing audio without changing the pitch and changing the pitch without affecting the timing of the audio
• - Audio warping reference
• - How to warp beats and audio to get them to synchronize
• - Split audio clips by putting the cursor in the correct spot and Edit > Split (or use Command-e)
• - Consolidate audio clips by selecting multiple clips Edit > Consolidate or Right-click > Consolidate (or use Command-j)

In-class Activity: create a loop or song using audio clips

• 1) Try recording some sound into Ableton
• - through your laptop microphone
• - using Soundflower, Loopback, or JackAudio
• 2) Add in some other audio samples either from Ableton, your own collection, or feel free to use some of these samples
• 3) Play around with warping your clips so that they line up the way that you want.
• - An example of this would be warping vocals or some melodic instrument to match a beat.
• - You could also stretch out or shorten parts of an audio sample to give it a different feel.
• - explore the different Warp Modes (Beat, Tones, Texture, Re-Pitch, Complex, Complex Pro)

Week 3, Tuesday (10/16/2018) - Audio Effects (Part 1)

Announcements

• - Ableton University tour will be on Thursdsay October 25 (1pm in room 204, 6pm in CPMC Recital Hall--RSVP here)
• - Project 1 is due in one week
• - Recordings of the class clapping, snapping, etc are here

Audio Effects Overview

• - a general guide to audio effects
• - Free plugins list. This list includes synths and audio effects.
• How to add in 3rd party VSTs or AUs into Ableton for Mac and Windows
• - Ableton Audio Effects reference
• - Ableton sets with audio effect examples shown in class:
• - delay-based effects
• - filter effects

Delay-based effects

• - Overview: Delay is an audio effect where the input audio signal is recorded and then played back after some length of time. Echoing is an example of delays because you hear the original sound and then you hear the copies of that sound later on as the sound bounces off the walls (or cave, etc)
• - Simple Delay
• - Ping Pong Delay
• - Filter Delay
• - Flanger
• - Chorus
• - Reverb

Filters

• - Overview: You can think of filters as effects that reduce and/or increasing certain parts of the sound. It may be useful to pair the filtering effects with a Spectrum analyzer to see what is happening to the sound as you change parameters.
• - Auto Filter
• - Phaser
• - Resonator
• - EQ Eight
• - EQ Three
• - Corpus

In-class Activity Option 1: transcribing audio effect processed sound

• 1) Make sure you have the original 5 samples from our last in-class activity. You can download that here
• 2) Download the processed versions of those samples here
• 3) Each of the original 5 samples have been processed using one of the following effects:
• - Simple Delay
• - Reverb
• - Auto Filter
• - Resonator
• - Chorus
• Try to recreate the audio processing in Ableton. In case this is helpful, I made all the sounds in one Ableton Live set with BPM set to 95. All beat-based samples are warped using Beat Mode and all other samples are warped using Complex mode.
• 4) Let me know if you want to check your results with mine!

In-class Activity Option 2: experiment with the audio effects that we talked about today

• 1) Experiment with 3 or more audio effects that we talked about today
• 2) Ideas for fun sounds to try out:
• - reverse Reverb, Simple Delay, and/or Ping Pong Delay on vocals, a piano note, or a cymbal sound
• - gated reverb snare with a Drum Rack
• - process a pad with Auto Filter and side chain the Auto Filter with some drums
• - play with the LFOs and envelope controls on Auto Filter, Flanger, and Phaser
• - make a crazy metallic sound with the Chorus over whatever input you like by using the *20 button
• - try out the different Resonator presets on vocals
• - whatever else you want to try out!

Week 3, Thursday (10/18/2018) - Audio Effects (Part 2)

Announcements

• - Ableton University tour will be on Thursdsay October 25 (1pm in room 204, 6pm in CPMC Recital Hall--RSVP here)
• - Project 1 is due on Tuesday
• - The accompanying Ableton Project is here.

Dynamics (Part 1): Distortion effects

• - Overview
• - Distortion happens when you overload the circuit and the signal clips, or when you turn up the level of a clip so high that it clips
• - When distortion occurs, new frequencies are added to the signal. Words that are used to describe distroted sound include warmer, crunchy, fuller, harsher.
• - Distortion, and the dynamic processing that we talk about today, are nonlinear effects, which means that new frequencies are added to the signal. The effects discussed up until now have been linear effects, meaning that frequencies are not added to the signal. The important difference between linear and nonlinear effects is that the sequence of audio effects will affect the resulting sound for nonlinear effects. Try putting a Reverb before and after a Compressor and notice how the sound is different. Try putting a Reverb before and after an Auto Filter and notice how the sound is not different depending on order.
• - Amp and Cabinet: distortion based on guitar amps
• - Redux: digital distortion by reducing sample rate and bit resolution
• - Erosion: digital distortion by modulating a short delay with filtered noise or a sine wave
• - Saturator: distortion/waveshaping effect that adds warmth, punch, and dirt to the sound
• - Overdrive: guitar pedal style distortion
• - Pedal: guitar distortion effect
• - Dynamic Tube: tube saturation

Dynamics (Part 2):

• - Compressor: reduce the dynamic range of the audio, creative sidechaining-ducking effects
• - threshold: the dividing level--anything louder than the threshold is reduced in level; sounds softer than the threshold are left alone
• - ratio: the intensity of the compression for signals about the threshold--the larger the first number, the greater the compression
• - peak or RMS: how the compressor figures out the dynamics of the signal (see this image)
• - knee: determines the onset of compression where a hard knee means it is a sharp on/off switch and a soft knee will graudally fade into to the compression
• sidechain compression examples: Daft Punk - Indo Silver Club, Flying Lotus - Massage Situation, Flying Lotus - Tea Leaf Dancers
• - Gate: reduce low-level noise or use for creative sidechaining effects
• - Limiter: ensure that the overall level of your signal never goes beyond a certain level (so that it does not clip)
• - Glue Compressor: mastering compressor to "glue" multiple tracks together
• - Multiband Dynamics: multiband compressor

Other effects

• - Autopan: LFO-based stereo panning
• - Vocoder
• - Frequency Shifter
• - Looper and Beat Repeat
• - Tuner
• - Utility
• - Spectrum

In-class Activity Option 1: transcribing audio effect processed sound (part 2!)

• 1) Make sure you have the original 5 samples from our last in-class activity. You can download that here
• 2) Download the processed versions of those samples here
• 3) Each of the original 5 samples have been processed using one of the following effects:
• - Compressor
• - Auto Pan
• - Redux
• - Erosion
• - EQ Eight
• Try to recreate the audio processing in Ableton. In case this is helpful, I made all the sounds in one Ableton Live set with BPM set to 95. All beat-based samples are warped using Beat Mode and all other samples are warped using Complex mode.
• 4) Let me know if you want to check your results with mine!

In-class Activity Option 2: experiment with the audio effects that we talked about today

• 1) Experiment with the audio effects that we talked about today (or ones from Tuesday that you did not get a chance to try out yet)
• 2) Ideas for fun sounds to try out:
• - sidechain compression with a synth or pad and something snappy/sharp/transient coming through the sidechain
• - use the gate sidechain to gate a frozen reverb tail
• - make lo-fi sounding synths with redux and erosion
• - play with the LFOs and envelope controls on Auto Filter, Flanger, and Phaser
• - chain audio effects together to get more interesting sounds (try a delay-based effect before and after a distortion affect and notice how the sound is different depending on order)
• - play around with stereo effects using Auto Pan

Week 5, Tuesday (10/30/2018) - Automation and performing with Ableton Live (Part 1)

Announcements and overview:

• - Project 2 is posted and due on Tuesday, November 6.
• - General automation reference and Clip View automation reference

Automation in Arrangement View

• - Turn on Automation Mode either using 1) View > Automation Mode 2) clicking the Automation Mode envelope button above the track names or 3) typing in "a" if you are not in Computer MIDI keyboard mode
• - Drawing and editing automation
• - Mixer automation: Track Volume, Track Panning, Send A, Send B
• - Automating the BPM on the Master track and how to set the exact BPM value with if you are automating the BPM
• - Audio Effect/Instrument/VST parameter automation examples

Clip automation

• - Volume and Transposition Modulation
• - Beat Offset Modulation for Beat Warp Mode (make sure your grid is quantized to 16th notes!)
• - Grain Size Modulation for Tones and Texture Warp Modes
• - Flux Modulation for Texture Warp mode
• - Linking envelopes to the clip

Automation in Session View is the same as automation in Arrangement View except that the device and parameter choosers and automation envelopes show up in Clip View.

Links for different ways to record automation

• - Recording automation in Session View so that the automation ends up in Session View clips
• - Recording from Session View into Arrangement View and recording automation at the same time
• - Recording Automation in Arrangement View

How to perform using Ableton Live without a hardware controller - Live Interactions

• - Use locaters in Arrangement View and map them to the keyboard
• - Using the mouse for launching clips in Session View
• - Using the mouse to modify audio effect, instrument, and clip parameters
• - Follow Actions

In-class Activity: automation and parameter manipulation

• 1) Start with an audio track that contains an audio sample and an audio effect.
• 2) For this audio track, try to automate:
• - the Mixer Volume and Panning
• - the Dry/Wet knob for the audio effect
• - transposition modulation in the Clip Envelope section in the audio Clip View
• 3) Make a MIDI track with a MIDI instrument. Either record or draw in some MIDI events to a MIDI clip.
• 4) For this MIDI track, try to automate:
• - one of the MIDI instrument parameters
• - pitch bend under the Clip Envelope > MIDI Ctrl section in the MIDI Clip Viewiew
• 5) Try to automate the BPM/global tempo.

Week 5, Thursday (11/1/2018) - Performing with Ableton Live (Part 2)

Instrument Racks and Audio Effect Racks overview

• - links to free Ableton Racks
• - helpful for organizing your instruments and effects
• - makes it easier to use multiple effects in a live, performance setting
• - parallel vs. serial chain: multiple chains in a rack operate in parallel. See this reference for a better explanation.
• - View chains in Session View by expanding the track that holds the Rack

Audio Effect Racks

• - reference tutorial
• - how to use the Chain Selector and Chain Zones to process your audio through different preset effects

Instrument Racks

• - reference tutorial
• - Use Chain Zones and the Chain Selector on multiple instrument chains that do not need to play at the same time
• - Use Key Zones to split the keyboard between different instruments (lower-pitched/bass instruments for lower registers and higher-pitched instruments/leads in the higher registers)
• - Velocity Zones: Sets the MIDI Note On Velocity that each chain responds to -- useful if you are making your own instrument and want quiet notes to sound timbrally different from louder notes

Extracting chains with Drum Racks

How to perform using Ableton Live with a hardware controller

• - Ableton Live reference for connecting MIDI devices
• - Ableton Live reference for MIDI ports
• - MIDI controller examples
• - How to connect a hardware controller to Ableton Live
• - Session View is a natural performance layout for launching clips
• - Custom MIDI controller mappings

Push 2 demonstration

• - How to set up a simple "DJ" session with an A/B track crossfade
• - Using Audio Effect Rack macros to combine multiple effects and easily manipulate the sound in a live setting
• - an idea for a live element in an Ableton set: use follow actions on a few different drum patterns and play a synthesizer over those beats

In-class Activity: working with Instrument and Audio Effect Racks

• Here are some ideas for your in-class work time. Feel free to work on your 2nd Project in class and incorporate anything that you learned in class from today.
• 1) Experiment with the preset Audio Effect Racks or Instruments Racks that come with your copy of Ableton. Are there any parameters that you feel comfortable manipulating in a live setting? Or are there any parameters that you might want to automate for your project?
• 2) Create your own Audio Effect Rack with multiple presets. Map the chain selector to a knob and automate that knob in Arrangement View to select different presets.
• 3) Create your own Instrument Rack. Make a split instrument where you have a bass instrument that only responds to lower MIDI notes and some lead instrument that responds to higher MIDI notes.
• 4) Create your own Audio Effect Rack where each macro knob is a “1 knob effect.” Ideas for this:
• - one knob controls the cutoff frequency of a low pass filter
• - one knob controls the cutoff frequency of a high pass filter
• - one knob controls the dry/wet for a reverb
• - one knob controls the dry/wet for a delay quantized to 1/8th notes
• - one knob controls the amount of Autopan
• - one knob controls the dry/wet amount for some distortion plugin of your choice
• 5) Try out some free Ableton racks

Week 7, Tuesday (11/13/2018) - Remixing and analyzing/recreating parts of songs

Expiring Ableton Live Demos

• - Download the TriqTraq app for $5 and get a free copy of Ableton Live Lite 10 (8 tracks and limited instruments and audio effects)
• - Use the CPMC studios (see the syllabus on how to get access)
• - Use a different DAW for your final project

Final Project and Final Project Milestone Listening Assignment

• - The prompts have been posted to the class website
• - In-class examples on recreating and remixing
• - Galimatias - South
• - KAYTRANADA - LITE SPOTS
• - Tips for recreating and fun things
• - put the part you are recreating into Ableton and look at the track to copy it and line up events in time
• - if you have difficulty figuring out the notes for songs, try to slice that portion, right click, and choose “Convert Melody to New MIDI Track”
• - if you have difficulty figuring out chords, look up guitar chords/tabs for the song, or try "Convert Harmony to New MIDI Track"
• - if figuring out beats is difficult for you, try “Convert Drums to New MIDI Track” and adjust accordingly
• - if it is difficult to figure out the notes for the bassline, transpose clips up an octave or two
• - if it is difficult to figure out the hi hat pattern, filter out the lows so you can hear the high frequencies from the hi hats
• - fun tape stop effect with Sampler (You can use Simpler in the same way!)

In-class Activity: recreation practice

• Please recreate the audio in this zip file. Remember that you want to match the sound quality (timbre) in addition to matching the melody, notes, and time pattern. Here are some hints/ideas for recreating each of these files
• 1) beat.wav
• - you can download the kit I used to make this for free here
• - drag it into Ableton and choose a place to install it
• - you will have to listen to the different kicks and snares to figure out which ones match the kicks and snares used in beat.wav
• 2) bass.wav
• - if the melody is hard for you to figure out, try transposing it up an octave
• - or try “Convert Melody to New MIDI Track”
• 3) chords.wav
• - try “Convert Harmony to New MIDI Track”
• 4) effects.wav
• - start with effects-dry.wav
• - use audio effects and automation to process it
• 5) vocals-edited.wav
• - start with vocals-unedited.wav
• - use time-warping, transposition, and audio effects to achieve the same sound

Week 7, Thursday (11/15/2018) - Humanizing your music

How to use Ableton Live 10's Drum Buss

• - video tutorial: start around the 1 minute mark to avoid their commercial
• - info sheet

Groove Pool

• - Ableton Live Groove pool tutorial
• - extracting grooves from any MIDI clip or audio clip and applying to MIDI clips and audio files

Analysis of groove/swing in existing music

• D'Angelo - Brown Sugar

Some tips on making your beats sound a bit more human

• - velocity:
  • - keep the downbeat on the 1 count of a bar loud and make the other sounds (accessory hits, repeated ghost notes) a bit quieter; this works well for kicks
  • - make use of LFOs in instruments and audio effects to add variation to the velocity (and other parameters)
• - timing:
• - triplet, quintuplet, septuplet swing
• - Consistent "off-the-gridedness" usually sounds better than adding randomness. Try always making your drum events on the 2 and 4 counts a bit late or a bit early. Either direction is fine, just keep it consistent throughout your song.
• - drop the same sample into multiple drum pads in your drum rack, but vary different parameters like velocity, pitch, release time, sample start time and trigger each one at different times

In-class Activity: playing with grooves

• 1. Create a MIDI track, drag on a Drum Rack and make a beat. Keep it quantized and snapped to the grid.
• 2. Open up your Groove Pool and drag 4 or 5 of the built-in Ableton Grooves into the Groove Pool.
• 3. In the clip view of your beat MIDI clip, try out the different groove files.
• - Play around with the groove file parameters for Timing, Random, Velocity, and Base
• - Optionally, commit the groove to see how your MIDI events move according to the groove file
• 4. Other fun things to try:
• - Extract the groove out of a song that you like and apply it to a MIDI beat that you make
• - Try out the Groove Files on an audio file or melodic material
• - Playing with randomness:
• - make a beat that is quantized to the grid
• - right click > Extract Groove
• - re-name the groove to whatever you want
• - apply it to the original beat that you made and play around with the randomness parameter to get weird fluctuations in your timing

Week 8, Tuesday (11/20/2018) - Final Project Milestone - Listening Assignment Discussion, Autotune, and Making your own Sampler

Listening Assignment Discussion

• 1. Grynpyret - Kites
• 2. Qrion - GAF
• 3. 徐梦圆 - China-P
• 4. GoldFish - Talk To Me
• 5. Porter Robinson - Lionhearted ft. Urban Cone
• 6. Mr. T with Motaki.F - Burning Heat! (3 Option Mix)
• 7. The Internet - Special Affair

Autotune

• - Ableton does not come with a built-in autotune tool, so we have to use 3rd party plugins for this
• - Ableton Guide for using external plugins on Windows
• - Ableton Guide for using external plugins on Mac
• - A list of free Autotune plugins
• - MAudioPitch
• - GSnap
• - GSnap for Windows
• - GSnap for Mac
• - Feeding MIDI controls into a 3rd party plugin
• - Autotuna, a Max For Live Device

Make your own instrument sampler

• - Tutorial
• - Freesound.org for free recordings
• - University of Iowa Music Instrument Samples

More ways to add variation to your music

• - load the same sample into multiple pads of your drumrack but change some parameters for each copy (detune, volume, ADSR envelope, etc)
• - make use of the LFO in the Simpler instrument to vary the velocity of your drums or other MIDI notes

Week 9, Tuesday (11/27/2018) - Max for Live introduction, experimental music, final project questions/worktime

• - Max for Live video tutorial links
• - Max For Live Introduction
• - LFO
• - Envelope
• - Envelope Follower
• - Shaper
• - Granulator II
• - Convolution Reverb Pro


• - Final Project questions and worktime

Week 9, Thursday (11/29/2018) - Mixing strategies, creative blocks, and course wrap-up

• - Mixing ideas
• - Have a clear idea of what elements you want in the foreground and what elements you want in the background. What is the "star" or the lead of your song?
• - Make sure you take breaks and let your ears rest
• - Try to get a mixdown that has about 3 to 5 dB of headroom. This tutorial is for Logic users, but the concepts are the same.
• - Use EQ, levels, panning/stereo image, and time-based effects (reverb, delay) to get all the elemnts to sit well within your mix
• - Pay attention to the fundamental frequency and harmonics of each element in your mix while working with EQ devices. This image might be heplful. For a description of that image, see this link
• - iZotope's guide to mixing: This is a comprehensive guide to mixing. It talks about a few of iZotope's devices, but the concepts are applicable to whatever devices you choose to use.
• - Try creating excitement in your hooks and choruses by widening the stereo image and/or introducing a wider frequency range during those parts.
• - Ozone Imager: free stereo image plugin
• - I got Ozone 8 Elements for a really low price, but I'm not sure if this method works anymore, but you should try it out.
• - Sometimes it helps to do all the things that people say you shouldn't do so you can experience and hear what it sounds like. Here is a list of 10 mixing mistakes. Try some of these out on your song and see how different your music ends up sounding.


• - What to do if you feel stuck with music making?
• - Remember that making music is fun! Try to throw aside the idea of making something "good" or "productive" or "likeable." Have fun with the process for now and something that you like will eventually come out.
• - Choose a genre that you dislike and try to make a really good song in that style.
• - Try to make a song in 1 hour.
• - Limit yourself to 3 or 4 elements (where a kick or a snare would count as an element).
• - Figure out what you always fall back on and remove it from this song. For example, if you always chop and re-stitch vocals together, don't use vocals for this song. Or if you always write a 4/4 beat, write this one in 3/4 for 6/8. If you always use a piano for chords, try using a stringed instrument, a synth, or no chords at all.
• - Collaborate with a friend
• - Try a youtube tutorial and then turn your experimentation into a song


• - Final Project questions